I've actually been thinking of the definition of the word "baby" recently

[conuly]

Specifically, I've been thinking that Merriam-Webster may be missing a sub-definition.

I've occasionally heard people refer to "baby lawyers", who are new and young lawyers, and sometimes I've also heard and read other similar constructions like "baby lieutenant", "baby revolutionary", "baby fascist", and the like. None are as common as "baby lawyer", though. Not as far as I've seen, anyway. Edit: People in the comments reminded me of all variants on "baby gay", which I'd heard before. I wouldn't edit to include new-to-me usages, but I just forgot this one.

And that usage doesn't really seem to fit anything at MW. I'd check the OED for their opinion but I need to re-up my library card first. Get a physical card, that's a good idea.

Comments

[ndrosen]

At the U.S. Patent Office, I’ve heard “baby examiners.”

[conuly]

Another data point!

[maju]

"Baby dyke".

[gingicat]

And that goes back at least to the 90s.

[chanter1944]

At least in the same general sphere, I've heard "baby gay".

[conuly]

Oooh, I've heard that, I forgot to add it!

[sabotabby]

I use "baby teachers" a lot.

[conuly]

And I'm guessing the intonation is different from "teachers for babies".

[sabotabby]

Yes, absolutely.

[oursin]

The OED entry only gives 'baby' for 'Comparatively small of its kind; miniature' of objects (e.g. cars) but examples only go up to 1998 so maybe it is in need of revision to include this person-related sense.

[conuly]

I don't think this sense really is "comparatively small" anyway. It's adjectival to mean something like "junior" or "new" or both of those + "young".

[oursin]

'Not quite fully-formed'/'Still maturing'
That was the closest - small/minor version of larger thing - currently in OED, but it doesn't really quite map. The other definitions were a lot more distant.

[wendelah1]

"Not quite fully formed, etc." works for me.

[conuly]

(Or, in the specific usage of "baby fascist", which I've heard in the real world to refer to various political leaders people don't like as well as in fictionland to refer to people who had made bad choices, it seems to mean "incipient, not fully loaded".)

[movingfinger]

I think the first usage of this kind I ran across may have been "baby goth" from cupcakegoth. That would have been quite a few years ago now, probably in the context of her Charm School columns.

[silveradept]

That is a relatively common construction in my circles, where the closest consistent meaning is "baby" being used to indicate someone is on the way to becoming whatever the thing is.

(Which, I think, is the same way that BABYMETAL uses it, for yet another instance.)